Julie Pacey

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

lincolnshire-police

Offense Location:

Grantham, Lincolnshire

Summary:

Julie Pacey was an unsolved murder victim, a 38-year-old mother of two found strangled to death with a cord in her first-floor bathroom on September 26, 1994 in Grantham, England. She had been sexually assaulted. The prime suspect, known as 'Overalls Man', was seen by numerous witnesses in the vicinity of Pacey's home in the days around the murder, and had appeared at her home when she was alone three days previously. The case remains unsolved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

On Monday, September 26, 1994, Pacey had left for work at around 10 am. Her husband was out that day working on a plumbing contract on Pechiney Packaging in Springfield Road with his brother. Having returned home in the family Audi car at 2:45 pm that day, Julie left again around half an hour later to go to the shops, being seen driving the Audi in Highcliffe Road near to her home. A man in blue overalls – apparently the same that had randomly turned up at Pacey's home asking for directions three days earlier – was seen walking up the road at the same time. He walked into the road as Pacey was passing in her car, causing her to nearly hit him. After Pacey's car had passed, the man was witnessed suddenly turning round and running back towards where Pacey's car had gone. At around 4:15 pm Julie's daughter Helen arrived home from school to discover her mother dead in the first-floor bathroom. Pacey was found strangled to death with a cord in her first-floor bathroom by her 14-year-old daughter on her return home from school. She had been sexually assaulted, although investigators do not know why she was apparently targeted in what appeared to be a planned attack. Three days before the murder, at around 3:30 pm on Friday 23 September 1994, a local girl who came to the Pacey home after school to wait for her own mother's return from work saw a suspicious figure. The girl saw a 'strange man' wearing blue overalls walking into the Pacey driveway. When she walked into the driveway to enter the house, the unknown man walked back out and passed directly by her, wearing brown workman's boots, was fairly chubby and looked around 35. He had a big round face that was 'all pink', with a ruddy complexion. He also had rough hands.

Additional Details:

Only one item was found to be missing from the home after the murder: her French Luc Desroches watch, which she bought shortly before she died while on holiday in France for the equivalent of £10. This item has never been found and was apparently taken from her home by her killer. The case has twice featured on Crimewatch. Pacey's case featured on Crimewatch in November 1994. The actor who played the role of the killer in the Crimewatch reconstruction was investigated as a suspect in September 2015 after the 1994 appeal was re-shown, as some viewers who had watched the appeal mistakenly called in to report him as the killer. On Monday 3 October 1994, exactly a week after the murder, police stopped more than 500 people walking or driving along Longcliffe Road to ask if they had any information on the murder. Questionnaires were handed out to mothers and children. In 2001, it was reported that links between Pacey's case and the murder of 21-year-old Sharon Harper four months earlier in Grantham had been investigated. The links were made as part of Operation Enigma, a wider national police investigation into the unsolved murders of dozens of women in the UK in the 1990s. Several 'clusters' of similar murders were identified which suggested that each could be the work of one man, and the Harper and Pacey cases were one of these 'clusters'. The DNA development, which was made using the modern DNA-17 profiling technique, was described as a 'landmark forensic breakthrough'. The DNA did not match anyone in the UK National DNA Database. Lead detective Helen Evans appealed to the public to help identify the murderer by giving names to compare to the DNA profile. Appeals were also made to the 'Overalls Man' that he could come forward and potentially be eliminated with the DNA. However, he has not done so. An actor who played the suspect in the 1994 sexual assault and strangulation of Grantham, UK mother Julie Pacey had a DNA sample taken after the 'Crimewatch' show was re-aired. 53-year-old Steve Watson, who lived only 15 miles from the crime scene, bore a startling resemblance to the police sketch issued at the time.

Case Last Updated:

Jun 02, 2026